Weak Help Desk Security Traced to Lack of Training, Loose Processes and Too Much "Helpfulness"

BEDFORD, Mass., July 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Story Highlights:

• RSA released the findings of a SANS Institute research survey on help desk security and privacy.
• Respondents included more than 900 IT professionals worldwide from a variety of industries including government, finance, education, healthcare, IT and telecommunications
• 69% of respondents cite social engineering as biggest threat to help desk security while nearly 27% surveyed report having weak help desk security policies
• 43% of respondents do not take the cost of a security incident into account when establishing their help desk budget; rather help desk budgets are determined by the number of users.

Full Story:

RSA, The Security Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC), today announced the findings of a new report by the SANS Institute spotlighting the threats and privacy issues facing help desks today. Surveying more than 900 IT professionals worldwide, SANS 2013 Help Desk Security and Privacy Survey identifies the most common help desk vulnerabilities and offers guidance designed to help organizations address these critical issues. Survey results include results on organizations' help desk processes, procedures and personnel behaviors that have potential implications to enterprise security.

Help desks are most commonly asked to assist users in addressing common IT problems including password resets and application and connectivity issues. Often the performance of help desk employees is measured by how quickly they can serve callers and resolve the issue. Unfortunately, in many cases, security does not play a major role in the process and as a result, help desks have become an unintended entry point for hackers and malicious insiders attempting to gain access to sensitive enterprise resources.

Most respondents (69%) identify social engineering as their biggest threat to help desk security.  Yet a majority of organizations still use basic personal information including name/location and employee ID number to verify the identities of callers into the help desk -- information that can be easily sourced by an imposter.  Furthermore, many help desk employees will bypass security controls in an effort to be more helpful to the caller.

In addition to the human component, lack of training, tools and technology also plays a key role in overall help desk security. More than 51% of respondents say they have a moderate approach to help desk security as part of their overall corporate security controls, but are not necessarily focusing on training or additional technologies for day-to-day activities.  With most budgets determined by the number of users serviced, rather than cost per call or even cost of potential security breaches, establishing a return on investment (ROI) for new processes, additional training, and tools for daily support can be extremely difficult.  Additional findings include:

• 44% of respondents ranked verification of call-in users a much greater threat than that for self-services users (11%).
• Only 10% of respondents ranked their security practices for the help desk as robust.
• Nearly 43% of respondents do not take the cost of a security incident into account when establishing their help desk budget; rather help desk budgets are determined by the number of users.

The help desk continues to be the preferred method for employees to resolve basic IT issues.  Its very charter is to better serve users and as a result, help desk staff can hold excessive privileges making it an attractive target for social engineers and technical hackers to attempt to gain entry into networks.  In order to close the gap on help desk vulnerabilities, organizations need to re-think their approach to meet the convenience demands of users while protecting against threats. Recommended best practices include:

• Automation and self-service options for common user issues including password resets to help reduce errors and vulnerabilities that lead to successful breaches and data theft
• Robust and continuous training for help desk personnel to learn how to spot and react to potential social engineering attacks
• Advanced tools that leverage dynamic data sources and new authentication methods to more accurately identify users and their location

RSA Executive Quotes:

Sam Curry, Chief Technologist, RSA, The Security Division of EMC

"In many instances the help desk is the first line of defense against breaches and securing it should be as important as any other business-critical function.  The new help desk needs to strike a balance of enhanced security and end-user convenience that integrates security directly into the process by adding technologies for automation and enterprise-level authentication, and continuous training to mitigate human error."

Featured Resources:

• SANS 2013 Help Desk Security and Privacy Survey
• Webcast: Securing Help Desks: A SANS Survey
• White Paper: Social Engineering and Cyber Attacks: The Psychology of Deception

About RSA

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, is the premier provider of security, risk and compliance management solutions for business acceleration. RSA helps the world's leading organizations succeed by solving their most complex and sensitive security challenges. These challenges include managing organizational risk, safeguarding mobile access and collaboration, proving compliance, and securing virtual and cloud environments.

Combining business-critical controls in identity assurance, encryption & key management, SIEM, Data Loss Prevention and Fraud Protection with industry leading GRC capabilities and robust consulting services, RSA brings visibility and trust to millions of user identities, the transactions that they perform and the data that is generated. For more information, please visit www.EMC.com/RSA.

RSA and EMC are either registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.  All other products and/or services referenced are trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE EMC Corporation